School of Nursing, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA.
College of Graduate Nursing, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA.
Am J Mens Health. 2022 Sep-Oct;16(5):15579883221117915. doi: 10.1177/15579883221117915.
Much of young people's fertility health knowledge has been limited to avoiding sexually transmitted infections and preventing pregnancy thus lacking what is necessary to support future overall health as well as reproductive goals. This study assesses university students' knowledge related to fertility health factors to verify consistencies and discrepancies in fertility health knowledge, with a sub-assessment focusing on men's knowledge. The Fertility Health Knowledge survey was delivered to 17,189 students at three American universities. Twenty percent or 546 of the 2,692 participants were male. The 30-question survey addresses knowledge of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors on fertility health in men and women, and four questions regarding fertility intentions. Across all 30 questions, 63% of female responses were correct and 61% of male responses were correct. For 10 questions, less than 70% of males and females answered correctly, with men answering correctly more often than females for six of the questions. Males exhibited more knowledge regarding male fertility. Knowledge of fertility health was consistently limited, regardless of site or demographics. Men demonstrated improved overall fertility health knowledge and more knowledge regarding male factors. There are still considerable gaps in knowledge of modifiable risk factors that may impact fertility health and future overall health. Fertility health promotion through education should be comprehensive and widely available in secondary schools, colleges, and universities. As well, increased education regarding fertility health in primary care settings should become the norm-with male inclusion as a standard of their care.
年轻人的生育健康知识大多局限于避免性传播感染和预防怀孕,因此缺乏支持未来整体健康和生殖目标所需的知识。本研究评估了大学生与生育健康因素相关的知识,以验证生育健康知识的一致性和差异,其中一个子评估侧重于男性的知识。生育健康知识调查分发给了三所美国大学的 17189 名学生。20%或 546 名 2692 名参与者为男性。30 个问题的调查涉及男性和女性生育健康中可改变和不可改变的风险因素的知识,以及四个关于生育意愿的问题。在所有 30 个问题中,63%的女性回答正确,61%的男性回答正确。对于 10 个问题,不到 70%的男性和女性回答正确,其中有 6 个问题男性的回答正确率高于女性。男性对男性生育能力的知识表现出更多。无论地点如何,生育健康知识的知识仍然有限,人口统计数据。男性表现出更好的整体生育健康知识和更多关于男性因素的知识。对于可能影响生育健康和未来整体健康的可改变风险因素的知识仍然存在相当大的差距。通过教育促进生育健康应该在中学、大学和高校全面普及。同样,初级保健环境中应增加关于生育健康的教育,将男性纳入其护理标准。